Drive mechanism for airships.



.L A1 STEWART.

DRIVE MECHANISM FOR ARSHIPS. APPLICATION FILED III/m20, IQIB.

miran STATES rafinnr orrrcn.'

JAMES A. STEWART, OF HOLLIDAYS COVE, WEST VIRGINIA.

`parvis: MECHANISM FonA AIRsHIrs.

To all wwm t may concemf Be it known that I, JAMES A. STEWART, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hollidays Cove, in the Sta-te of Vest Virginia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Drive Mechanism for A irships, of which the ,following vis a specification.

This invention relates to drive mechanism for airships, aeroplanes or the like and vhas for its primary object to provide. *drive mechanism that is capable of either giving direct vertical movements to the airship or horizontal movements. i

An object of the inventionisto provide mechanism capable of instantly'moving an airship vertically and so constructed as to assume an inoperative position when other mechanism is thrown into operation for vgiving horizontal .movements to theairship.

Besides t-he'above my invention is .distin, gui-shed by pairsof propellers acting 1n con- A junction, one operating when the engine is in lowspeed, the other operating when the engine is in high speed, and irst mentioned propeller thrown into inoperative position.

Withthese and other objects in view the invention will be better understood from the following detailed description taken in conconnection `with the accompanying drawing Figure 1 is a rear elevation of the mechanism showing parts in section.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view showing a portion of the lifting propeller.

Fig 3 is a 'detailed view of the flexible om J Again referring to the drawingthev numeral 1 designates a base in which is rotatably mounted a casing 2 which may consist of a plurality of sections. this particular instance is of a l.) shaped formation and rotatably mounted therein is a drive shaft 3 consisting of vertical sections 4 and 5 connected to a horizontal section 6 by flexible joints in the form of coil springs 7. The section 6 is directly connected to the drive gear 8. From this arrangement it will be seen that the sections 4 and 5 may extend in a vertical direction as shown in the drawy ing or may assume a horizontal positlon by It will be noted by referring to Fig. 1 that may rotate as a unit.

The casing in` y as they are identical in Construction the fol- Speccaton'of Letters Patent. Patented Dec. 17, 1918,v Application filed March 20, 1918. Serial N0. 223,616.

lowing description will be limited to that mechanism shown vat the left of the drawing.

rlhe protruding end of the section 4 has fixed thereto a cone-shaped hub. 9 that supports the propeller blades 10 of a drive propeller 11. Slidably mounted on the casing 2 is a tube 12 terminating in a cone-shaped hub 13 adapted to slide into engagement with the hub 9 so that the tube and section 4 The blades 14 of the lifting propeller 15 have a knife joint 16 with the hub 13' so that the blades may be moved toward an operative or an inoperaj tive position and when in an operative position rigidly held against independent move- 'ments Slidably mounted on the'tube 12 is a collar 17 connected to the blades by links 18. Sliding movements may be given to the collarl? in any suitable manner such as by the pivoted lever 19 having a forked extremity- 20 engaging a groove 21 in the collar. This lever 19 may be operated in any suitable manner such as by a. flexible cable 22 passing around suitably arranged pulleys so that the lever may be operated from a remote point.

From the foregoing description taken in it will be seen that when it is necessary to lift the airship vertically the lever 19 may further movement of the lever 19 will force the hub 13 into engagement with the hub 9 for rotating the tube '12 with the shaft section 4.' Before this takes place the engine driving the gear 8 will be thrown into low speed as the pitch of the blades 14 are of 'a degree to give'great-lifting power at a relatively small number of revolutions of the propeller. Thus it will be seen that the action of the propeller 11 when rotated will be reduced. When it is found necessary to drive the airship forward the casing 2 will be rotated in the base for throwing the shaft sections 4 into a horizontal position. When this takes place the propellers 15 will be collapsed.

It is to be understood that the structural embodiment of the invention as a whole and its various features as shown is merely illustrative and not restrictive, since I am wel] aware that many of the details of construction can be widely varied without depart- -ing from the spirit of the invention, l therefore do not desire to be limited in these particulars or in any others7 except as set forth in the appended claims. s Having describedA my invention, what l claim is;

1. Drive mechanism for airships comprising a rotatably mounted casinga drive `shaft vmounted therein and having its ends project- 1o ing beyond' said casing, propellers lined 'thereto and collapsible propellers adjustably mounted to engage said ,first mentioned propeller.

42. Drive mechanism for airships comprising a rotatably mounted casinga drive shaft mounted therein and having its ends projecting beyond said casing, 'propellers fixed thereto and collapsible propellers 'adj ustably mounted to engage said first mentioned pro- 20 peller.

ramasse 3. Drive mechanism for airshiis comprising' in combination a drive sha t a` casing supporting the shaft a propeller fixed to said shaft a second propeller consisting of a hub and blades pivotally connected to. the hub and means for extending said blades to 'anoperative position and moving the hub into having a link connection with the blades and I a device for giving movements to the collar.

ln testimony whereof I aiiix my signature. JAMES A. STEWART.

ly engage the hub Y '-30 shaft supported thereby v 

